I haven't cooked many short ribs; too much effort and too little
return. Part of that is the fact I don't like stewed or braised meats
much. I am not a fan of "Mom's roast" except once in a great while,
or any other kind of meat that has been cooked into submission.

I don't braise or foil meats. I will only cook a traditional beef
roast in the oven for company, and only then for LOML's family. So
for me, it's pretty much nekkid on the pit or grill, and even in the
oven.

But I do have a "I'll grill or smoke anything once policy" that I have
maintained for 30 years and it has covered just about everything I can
get my hands on that walks, swims, flies, or slithers (snake is good,
but really overrated).

I found some short ribs that are cut by a small nearby butcher a
couple of weeks ago. Instead of the small bones with a little bit of
meat on them I see at the local supermarket, these shorts were cut to
be about the size of baseball to almost softball sized pieces. They
had a lot of fat on them, but a LOT of meat. It was too much to
resist at $1.99 a lb. The butcher told me that he cut them that way
because "that was the way he learned".

I really wanted to cook them on the smoker, but couldn't decide how to
do it. Finally, after examining the ribs closely out of the package,
I saw there was a LOT of fat on those as well as the meat.

So I put the ribs (6 of them) in a large bowl and gave them a good
coating of my brisket rub and let them set a couple of hours before I
put them on the WSM. I put them on at 275 - 285 degrees, which was
fine considering all the fat. Bone down, fat up to let the rendering
fat roll over the rib meat.

I had them in for 4 hours. They weren't done. Checked again at 5.
Not done. Checked again at 6. Almost. Checked at 7, and a fork
twisted the juicy meat easily. The bones were movable.

The meat was excellent. Served with garlic dill mashed potatoes and
vinegar slaw, they were a hit! The meat had a really intense flavor,
almost like it was aged. Almost all of the fat rendered off, and the
meat was just at sliceable after slipping out the bones.

Some observations:

I was surprised at how much fat those six little baseballs rendered!
Wow! Those six shorties gave more fat off than the >>17 lbs<< of
spares I cooked the weekend before! It was probably (literally) 2
cups of rendered fat!

They were enormously easy to cook. They took more time than I thought
they would, but worth the wait. No special prep needed, no foiling,
no sitting in a cooler wrapped in towels for a couple of hours, no
fiddling around/obsessing about maintaining 225 degrees, or any of
that other stuff. I actually don't do that stuff anyway, and probably
never will.

There can be a lot of meat on short ribs! Who knew?

I am thinking that like a fatty brisket, these could be very forgiving
on the smoker IF you got the right sized shorts. I may move on up to
300 - 325 or so on the next batch and see if it responds like a
brisket. I could cook more with less time, and at higher heat maybe
get a bit of crispy on them.

These would be easy to cook for anyone, regardless of equipment. Like
a pork butt, they have their own version of the "pop up timer". When
they were done, the meat pulled back from the bone as much as an 1 1/4
on each side of the bone. More importantly, the bone became a little
loose, which was easy enough to test. And using the classic fork
twist as a final test, it was a no brainer. Not thermometers needed,
and with a wide range of temps used to cook them, the big short ribs
should be easy for anyone.

I still wouldn't cook those little peewee sized short ribs I see at
the local supermarket. Too much work, not enough return. I think I
am hooked on those big boys, though.

Robert